BB to provide small loans under refinancing scheme
Annual
conference
for the chief
executives of banks and
NBFIs held
BSS
Bangladesh Bank (BB) would introduce a refinancing scheme for providing smaller loans to the low-income and marginal group people through no-frill bank accounts those are known as Taka-10 bank accounts, reports BSS.
The central bank has introduced the no-frill bank accounts at a nominal deposit of Taka-10 for the farmers, the extreme poor, freedom-fighters, street and school children, third genders and other deprived sections of the population.
We are moving towards activating these accounts by providing refinanced smaller loans, Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman said, while addressing the annual conference-2015 for the chief executives of banks and non-bank financial institutions at the Bangladesh Institution of Bank Management (BIBM) in Mipur, Dhaka. BIBM organised the event.
The central bank has already launched a number of refinancing schemes for funding various sectors including alternative energy, import-substitute crops production, and the ventures by women entrepreneurs.
Highlighting the major objectives of these initiatives, the governor said that the primary goal is to have higher, better quality and sustainable growth, ensuring economic well being, social cohesion and empowerment, while protecting the environment. This objective was operationalised by the introduction of a comprehensive financial inclusion programme, through which people like sharecroppers, women entrepreneurs, marginal farmers who did not have access to credit before are now getting credit facilities without hassles and at affordable interest rates, he said.
The governor also said that special stress was given on adequate financing for agriculture and allied activities, small and medium scale enterprises, promoting environment-friendly financing by the banks, and broadening of mobile banking and financial services throughout the country.
Listing some of the major initiatives of the central bank, Rahman said that these initiatives would make the journey towards higher middle-income country status smooth.
He said the initiatives include eco-friendly innovations like harnessing solar energy, biogas, effluent treatment plant and Hybrid Hoffman Kiln for the brickfields as well as generating electricity from biogas, employing solar irrigation pumps and encouraging the banks to finance setting up of solar energy panels in households and business
establishments.
These initiatives will make our journey towards a higher middle income country smooth, the governor observed.
He also highlighted the central banks steps to bring some strategic changes to its supervision techniques for ensuring financial stability.
To promote good corporate governance, monitoring has been enhanced in the areas of responsibility and accountability of the board, said the central banks top brass.
He said internal control structures are being strengthened and the process of risk identification, measurement and mitigation streamlined to move closer to the international best practices.
With our extensive digitization initiatives, it is expected that the existing and potential loopholes would be effectively addressed.
The governor said that the central bank also achieved much recognition for its contribution in financial inclusion, financial literacy, school banking, sustainable banking, green banking, mobile banking and agent banking.
